I’ve been a long-time user of Wikipedia, although I’d never edited it until today. I’m kind of ashamed to admit that I use it as much as I do, but maybe I shouldn’t be. After all, can you go to the Encyclopedia Britannica and read an article on the Dark Side of the Rainbow, Rickrolling, or MTV’s Skins? Wikipedia has a lot of information on pop culture and recent events that you just won’t find in an academic encyclopedia.

I chose to edit the page for my hometown, Sioux Rapids. I’ll admit, I was kind of nervous to edit Wikipedia at first. I guess I’ve read so many articles on there that I’ve gained a respect for it. I know that it’s meant to be edited by anyone, but somehow I didn’t feel like I was worthy of doing it. When I went to edit the page, I was surprised to see that with a quick sign-up process and a click of the “Edit” button, I was looking at the script for the page, ready for me to edit. That’s it. Nothing else. I had the power to write a page for a globally-read encyclopedia in my hands.

I thought for a while about editing Morningside’s page, but I decided against it. I know it’s lame, but I really didn’t feel like I should, even though I had every reason to do it. I felt like I was playing God in a way. Of course, the people who write for real encyclopedias aren’t gods, any more than people who edit Wikipedia. But Wikipedia has a certain kind of power. People read it, and take the information in it to heart, whether it’s right or not. Heck, a lot of students even use it in their papers, even if they lie and say they don’t. This just didn’t seem like something I could take lightly.

I felt good for doing it though. After all, the Sioux Rapids page needed some attention. Those 720 people deserve to be noticed.